41. That a person should know the measure of his gift, and always desire more, taking a better one when God wishes to give it

"Our holy fathers in former times taught us to know the measure of our gift and work by that, not making use of pretense to take more upon ourselves than we have felt. We can always desire the best, but we cannot always perform the best, for we have not yet received that grace.

"A hound that runs after the hare only because he sees other hounds running will rest when he is tired, and turn back; but if he runs because he sees the hare, he will not flag for weariness until he has it. It is just the same spiritually. If anyone has a grace, however small, and decides to stop working with it and to make himself labor at another that he does not yet have, only because he sees or hears that others are doing so, he may indeed run for a while until he is weary; and then he will turn home again: and if he is not careful he can hurt his feet with some fantasies before he gets there. But when anyone works with such grace as he has while humbly and persistently desiring more, and later feels his heart stirred to follow the grace which he has desired: he can safely run, provided he keeps humility.

"And therefore desire from God as much as you can--without moderation or discretion--of all that belongs to his love and the bliss of heaven, for whoever knows how best to desire from God shall have the most feeling of him; but work as you can, and call for his mercy on what you cannot. So it seems St. Paul said: 'Unusquisque habet donum suum a Deo, alius autem sic, alius vero sic [1 Cor. 7:7]. Item unicuique nostrum data est gratia secundum mensuram donationis Christi [Eph. 4:7]. Item divisiones gratiarum sunt; alii datur sermo sapientiae; alii sermo scientiae [1 Cor. 12:4, 8]. Item ut sciamus quae a Deo donata sunt nobis [1 Cor. 2:12].' St. Paul says that every man has his gift from God: one this way, and another that, for to every man who is to be saved grace is given according to the measure of Christ's gift; and therefore it is an advantage to know the gifts given us by God, so that we can work by them; for by those we shall be saved. For example, some shall be saved and come to blessedness by bodily actions and by works of mercy; some by great penance; some by sorrow and weeping for their sins all their lifetime; some by preaching and teaching; and some by various graces and gifts of devotion."

--Walter Hilton (d. March 24, 1396), Scala perfectionis 1, trans. John P.H. Clark and Rosemary Dorward, as The Scale of Perfection (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), pp. 111-12.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 18, 2009 at 9:42 AM

    Where would you place the work of HFM Prescott, The Unhurryig Chase, The Lost Fight, Son of Dust, Man on a Donkey (Ok, the last is about the Dissolution of the Monastaries under Henry VIII)?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fencing BearSeptember 18, 2009 at 10:13 AM

    Actually, I don't know Prescott's work. Do you recommend it?

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 18, 2009 at 10:54 AM

    I recommend her highly.

    Loyola Press has republished Son of Dust and The Man on the Donkey (in 2 volumes) I can send them to you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fencing BearSeptember 18, 2009 at 12:38 PM

    Thank you, I would like that very much!

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownSeptember 18, 2009 at 2:14 PM

    Vinita will pick up copies today and bring them to you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my blog post. I look forward to hearing what you think!

F.B.

Popular posts from this blog

Draco Layer Four: The Anagogic or Mystical Sense

Image
Here be dragons. And doves. Human beings long for transcendence. Such longing is, for the world, always out of fashion because, of course, it is not a longing for the world, and the world knows it. We know what the world wants. The world—by which we mean Satan, the Lord of the World—wants above all our obedience, a jewel so precious that he will do anything to get it: lie, steal, murder, bear false witness, pretend to social standing, pretend to insider knowledge to get us to consent to his influence.  “God lied to you. You will not die.” And suddenly we are anxious about having other people dislike us, about losing prestige in our social circles, about other people being more popular or influential or successful, about other people having secret knowledge, about our own influence and fame. “You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” And with that temptation, our first parents fell. The irony is cosmic. There they were in the Garden, privy to conversation with God face-to-face, ...
Keep reading

How to Signal You Are Not a White Supremacist

Image
Professor Kim READ FIRST:  Why Dorothy Kim Hates Me , The Color of the House of the Lord It’s back to class for those of us who teach in medieval studies, and my medievalist colleague Dorothy Kim , Assistant Professor of English at Vassar College ( pictured in 2014 ), wants to make sure you understand the stakes . The medieval western European Christian past is being weaponized by white supremacist/white nationalist/KKK/nazi extremist groups who also frequently happen to be college students.  That does sound bad. But, wait, it gets worse! Don’t think western European medieval studies is exceptional.... ISIS/ISIL also weaponizes the idea of the pure medieval Islamic past in their recruiting rhetoric for young male Muslims. If the medieval past (globally) is being weaponized for the aims of extreme, violent supremacist groups, what are you doing, medievalists, in your classrooms? Because you are the authorities teaching medieval subjects in the classroom, you are, in ...
Keep reading

What's in a name?

I knew it was a mistake involving myself in political commentary*, but having taken the plunge, I guess I have to keep swimming, at least until the election. One of the things that has mystified me for years is how the label "liberal" came to be associated with support for government regulation of business, e.g. environmental and worker protection measures, or even (heaven forbid) financial transactions. I know that my colleagues in political science would have an answer to this, and I suspect it goes back to sometime in the 1980s, when Berke Breathed did all those comics about the General [my bad: the Major; it's been a long time] and Milo hunting liberals in the meadows of Bloom County. But knowing the little that I do about the history of the concept of liberalism as it developed in the 19th century, I must confess myself rather confused. This is the way John Stuart Mill (as Wikipedia puts it, "one of the first champions of modern 'liberalism'") s...
Keep reading

Talking Points: Three Cheers for White Men

Image
1. When white women (see Marie de France and Eleanor of Aquitaine) invented chivalry and courtly love , white men agreed that it was better for knights to spend their time protecting women rather than raping them, and even agreed to write songs for them rather than expecting them to want to have sex with them without being forced. 2. When white men who were celibate (see the canon lawyers and theologians of the twelfth century and thereafter) argued that marriage was a sacrament valid only if both the man and the woman consented , white men exerted themselves to become good husbands rather than expecting women to live as their slaves. 3. When white women (see Christine de Pizan, Mary Wollstonecraft, and the suffragettes) invented feminism , white men supported them (see John Stuart Mill) and even went so far as to vote (because only men could vote at the time) to let them vote, not to mention hiring them as workers and supporting their education. And before you start telling me a...
Keep reading

Make the Middle Ages Dark Again

Image
I miss the good old days. You remember. Back when the only thing people knew about the Middle Ages is that they were Dark and filled with evil barons wresting a living off the back of their serfs, not to mention lecherous clergy imprisoning young maidens so as to rape them and then accuse them of witchcraft. You remember, right? What it was like when the Middle Ages were Dark? The Roman Catholic Church made slaves of everyone, stripped them of their sense of dignity and independence and made social status a matter not of achievement, but birth. The Church hated science and industry and did everything in its power to keep people in chains. It guarded its authority with the sword and the stake, stifled all innovation, and fed the common people lies. And why were these Ages so Dark? There were no universities, no towns, only castles with dungeons. Monks huddled in their cells thinking dark thoughts about sin, while Vikings stormed across the countryside, raping and pillaging and ca...
Keep reading